Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins

I'm not sure how I feel about doing a full review for this book. Don't get me wrong, I love the Hunger Games series! You can see how positive my response to the books were by reading my reviews for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I thought those 2 books were totally awesome, and I was sure that the final book promised to be epic and a satisfying end to the trilogy.

Sadly, my feelings pretty much match those of my friend Graham, whose review can be seen here. I think he says it better than I could. Well, he's already said it, anyway.

I didn't hate this book, but I didn't really love it either. I was sad that the main character, Katniss, had to endure so much physical pain, get addicted to the drug morphling, have her boyfriend Peeta go insane and brainwashed to kill her, and see all her friends die around her (even a member of her family!). I don't blame her for being so suicidal near the end.

Because of all this sadness, I was pretty confused how in the epilogue, Suzanne Collins managed to create a semi-happy ending, where the Districts don't do Hunger Games anymore but just try to rebuild their lives, and Katniss and Peeta get married and have 2 kids. It was just really weird, you know? It's obviously meant to be a bitter-sweet ending, but I don't know why after all the awful stuff, she even attempted to make it happy.

But like I said, the book isn't all that bad. I liked some aspects of it. The writing was really good, and I liked how Suzanne built the world of District 13. Interesting how that's like a big melting pot for all the rebels of the districts, and even some people from the Capitol are there. The character of President Coin, leader of District 13, is quite a piece of work. Like Katniss, I was really suspicious of her (you should be too).

And besides, this book has some cool memories attached to it. I actually bought this novel from the bookstore (a rarity for me, since I'm more of a library girl) so that I could get to meet Suzanne Collins herself! She couldn't really sign her books, because she had some condition with her hand, but she stamped this special Mockingjay mark in the front of each person's copy.

I was the 71st person in line to meet her. I know, because they handed out these tickets to people in the order that they arrived. There must've been over a hundred and fifty people in the room by the time Suzanne arrived, so I guess I was lucky. See how happy I am, holding up her book? My brother Adam is the one who took the picture. For some reason, only he and I were able to make it to this special event. My parents and sister were working at our apartment in Boston. It was our last day there, so I guess it was pretty hectic. O,o

In the fliers for the event, it said the author couldn't exactly pose with every single fan, but pictures seemed to be allowed. So my brother snuck this one in. Sorry for the blurriness. Anyway, it's proof that I got to meet Suzanne Collins. ^_^

She seems like such a sweet person. You almost wouldn't think that she is the individual responsible for creating such a dystopian universe for her characters to live in, not to mention making most of said characters suffer so horribly. I mean, she writes so well that she makes me believe that these are actual people, and then she just kills them off one by one (since there's no way around it in the Hunger Games). It's as if she's a murderer, although I'm pretty sure that she's not in real life. It's just... weird. O,o I guess that's how it goes for all authors who kill their characters at one point or another. How do they sleep it night, I wonder?

Oh by the way, at the event they had this table that suggested what other books readers might enjoy if they like the Hunger Games trilogy, so I took a panorama picture in order to get the entire table. Do you see that green book in the very middle? ^_^ Yes, it's the Maze Runner! I thought it was so nice of Suzanne Collins to help promote James Dashner's book like that. I'm very excited for the next book in that series, the Scorch Trials, to come out in October.

So yeah, it seems like I was able to give a pretty full review here after all. Didn't know I had it in me. ^_^ Until next time. *Bettina out.*

The Blade of Shattered Hope, by James Dashner

I was really excited to pick up the Blade of Shattered Hope from the bookstore about a week ago. This is the 3rd book in Dashner's 5-part series, The 13th Reality. Here are my reviews for Books 1 and 2 of this series. They are awesome. Having said that, I believe that I liked the first and second books much better than the third. Without giving away too many spoilers (I hope), here are a few reasons why I had a less than stellar reading experience:

• It was pretty dark compared to the others.

Granted, I understand why it's a lot darker: Mistress Jane is upping her game, Tick's trying to control his newfound power, and in the meantime, his own family is being attacked and mixed up in this whole Reality mess. But James, if I were humbly able to suggest anything to you, since it's the 3rd in a 5 part series, maybe you could have saved the darkness for the last 2 books? Then again, from the ending, I have no idea where you plan to go with this series, so I'll just leave the writing to you.

• Very few entertaining riddles for Tick to solve, which I really loved in Book 1, the Journal of Curious Letters.

In fact, there was only one riddle, near the end, which wasn't that hard. Maybe that was because I decided to flip through the book to see the pictures ahead (correct me if I'm wrong, but there seem to be fewer illustrations in this volume than the others), and I accidentally saw the solution before I got to that part. So I ruined that for myself. ~,~

• Tick has so much mood switches about his feelings about Mistress Jane, which had me utterly confused.

Jane is evil and twisted, yes, everyone knows that. But first he feels pity for her and what he's accidentally done to her (See The Hunt for Dark Infinity), then he hates her guts for doing stuff to his family and friends. Then he feels there might be a glimmer of hope for her yet, and then he goes insane and tries to kill her with his wild Chi-karda powers, without thinking about any consequences. Yeah. For some reason, I don't feel like I recognize Tick anymore. He used to use his head, but now he just goes with his gut.

Besides pointing these things out, I do have some good things to say about Shattered Hope. I learned more stuff about the supporting characters, like Tick's mom and his sister Lisa, both of whom haven't gotten a lot of coverage until now (Dad and Kayla had great roles in Book 1, I thought. I wish there was more of them here, though). Also Sofia gets more backstory, and Sato becomes a very key player in this adventure. I think I'm warming up to Sato now. He was a real jerk in Curious Letters, but now I see that he's quite loyal and brave and has lots of other good qualities. He makes a great leader, I'll tell you that.

This book isn't my favorite in the series thus far, but the ending will really surprise you. Trust me. I'm not that sure exactly how it happened, even though I read it, but it's still a great cliff-hanger and makes me curious about what happens next.

As a side note, and another suggestion to James Dashner, I read the index of important people and terms at the end of the book. My suggestion is that maybe you should have all the terms we've just learned from this book separate, from all the other terms that we learned in past books, because it makes it confusing when they're all bunched up together. I was reminded of Billy "the Goat" Cooper and the Barf Scarf and the Tingle Wraith and all these things that weren't important to Shattered Hope. To tell the truth, looking back on those story elements made me wonder... why are those things so important to the story? Why should they all be in an index? And I still don't know what the ugly birthmark on Tick's neck looks like! ~,~

Here's a link to my friend Graham's opinions of this same book. I think he shares my sentiments almost exactly.

House of Many Ways, by Dianna Wynne Jones

This book I took out because it was a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle. (Well, actually there's a sequel that came before this one, but it didn't have much to do with the original characters. This one did.) Even though I hadn't thoroughly enjoyed the original (see my review here), I decided I'd give this one a try anyway. I have to admit that this book was a tremendous improvement to it's predecessor. ^_^

The story is about a girl named Charmain who's only pleasure is reading, and somehow she's forced to housesit for a sick Great-Uncle, who is actually a wizard. His house is quite unusual. At first glance it would seem like the house only had a kitchen and a living room, but if you go through a door and immediately turn left, it takes you to the bathroom and bedrooms. There's also a sweet little white dog that the Uncle left behind, called Waif, who likes to eat a lot. Eventually Charmain is joined by a boy named Peter, who was supposed to be her uncle's apprentice before he got sick. So they're stuck together and take care of the house. Peter is a big help, since Charmain knows next to nothing about doing dishes and laundry and other boring chores. Still, for some reason she finds him annoying.

In the middle of taking care of her Uncle's magic house, Charmain becomes assistant librarian to the King, so she plays a part in solving a mystery that Sophie (remember her from the first book?) is trying to solve, along with her friend Calcifer the fire demon, her husband Howl, although he's disguised himself as an adorable young boy with a horrible lisp named Twinkle (no idea why 0,o) and their 2 year old son Morgan, who I think is something of a brat. I'd rather not reveal what that mystery is, since it would take too long to tell.

If this book was made into a movie, I wouldn't mind at all. The characters are lively with full personalities, and the adventures that Charmain had quite held my interest. I liked how Charmain could sort of do magic, like Sophie found she could in the first book. And the ending panned out a TON better than Howl's Moving Castle. Sure, it was just as much a happily-ever-after as before, but at least everything made sense and all the ends were neatly tied up. If you could get any enjoyment out of this series, I'd say watch the Hayao Miyazaki film of "Howl's Moving Castle," and then read this book.

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

I actually finished reading this late last night. Naturally, I was too tired to write a review, but from now on I'm going to do my best to, once I turn the last page of a given book, write a review immediately. I have to do what I can to fight my procrastinative nature (not sure that's a word, but whatever).

My reason for picking this book up is that I absolutely loved the animated film version, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. (I embedded a trailer at the bottom. Although the book wasn't bad, I think I would have been better off if I hadn't seen the movie beforehand, because I kept thinking of how awesome that story was, and the book just couldn't live up to it. ~,~

The book and the movie couldn't have been more different. Well, at least the beginning answered a lot of back-story questions I had while watching the movie. But everything that follows Sophie (the girl cursed with old age) entering and becoming a part of Howl's castle was absolutely nothing like I expected would happen. There are a couple added characters and scenes in the plot, and nearer the end I believe it became almost episodic. Like the Time Quake, the conclusion only came in the last chapter, and it was much too quick and happy to be entirely satisfying.

So my advice is to not necessarily read the book at all and just check out the movie, because that is truly awesome, engaging and rewarding story. However, if you're honestly curious and want to give the book a try (it isn't all that bad, after all), I suggest reading the story before you view it, because then you can appreciate how much better the movie is. This is rather than experiencing it the way I did, having the movie in my mind and getting let down by the book.

Posting this review has made me realize that I've forgotten to embed trailers of movies based on books I've read in a few reviews. I'm going to fix that now...

The Time Quake

Gee, this book was kind of a disappointment. ~,~ A little background. This book, the Time Quake, is the last installment in the Gideon Trilogy. I read the first couple books, "The Time Travelers" (previously titled Gideon the Cutpurse) and "The Time Thief", in the middle of 2008, so it was about a year and a half since I was able to complete the series, because this book was published just this year.

I had thought I really liked the series. It was all about time travel, and these two kids get stuck in the 18th century thanks the girl's father's anti-gravity machine. Whatever. In the second book, they accidentally leave the boy behind, so the girl and the boy's dad have to go back for him, but they end up in the wrong time, like 30 years after their episode in the past, so the boy is now all grown up and gotten used to the past. Then I think the bad guy got hold of the time machine and time started getting wacky. Also the girl started getting these weird powers that allow her to "fast-forward" through time, so everything stands frozen while she's still moving. This doesn't stop until she touches the boy again.

Now this book here was, frankly, a disappointment for me. With so much time passed between readings, I'd forgotten a lot of what had happened, and where the book picked up didn't exactly help things much. And when the book was wrapped up... it didn't feel right somehow. It was like the author simply decided to quickly tie things up, when I think if you had to do the thing right, there should have been some more chapters added to explain everything. For example, the bad guy's plot was to go back in time to when George Washington was crossing the Delaware and kill him, so that America would never get it's independence. Kind of stupid if you ask me, because he had actually gotten to like New York. He just wanted to keep America under British Rule. Also the girl kind of dies, because of how fast she fast-forwards or something, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Luckily she took the bad guy with her, so that got rid of him.

The weirdest thing was that in the end, the boy was able to go back to the time he and the girl were about to go to the anti-gravity machine, and stop all the time events from happening. I was thinking, "How the heck did he get there?!" I mean, the time machine they had was broken, and besides, the future was ruined already, because the bad guy had actually succeeded in killing George Washington! Everything must have turned out different, so how did their families still exist? What, did they have time to fix up the Washington mess? Nothing was said about it. It's just a happily ever after ending, but it didn't feel justified.

It's a very sad day on Bettina's Book Club when I have to review a book I didn't like very much. ~,~ If you happened to like the Gideon Trilogy, I suggest you not read this book and pretend that Peter and Kate get back to their own time and world in a believable and satisfying manner. If you've never heard of this series, then I suggest you not bother picking it up. The last one is very disappointing.

Planet Simpson, by Chris Turner

Yesterday I finally was able to finish reading this huge book that is all about my newest obsession (for want of a better word), The Simpsons. It's just incredible. This cartoon show has been on T.V. for 21 Seasons (and counting!) and I never knew how good it really was, until quite recently.

I'd never really seen the Simpsons before, so I used to think that this show belonged in the same category as Family Guy, or South Park. Stupid, bad animation, crude humor, rotten characters, and not funny AT ALL! (Incidentally, I've never watched Family Guy. I saw a tiny bit of South Park long ago, and I know I hated that show. Never watched it since then.) Well, let me tell you, after watching the Simpsons as much as I have by now, my opinion for them has done a total 360. ^_^ I should have known there was a reason behind this show being the longest running cartoon ever.

This book explains the universe of the Simpsons incredibly well. There's a whole chapter devoted to each member of the Simpson family (well, except Maggie, I guess), Mr. Burns and all the other important characters. The book also talks a lot about the show's history and it's huge effect on America and the rest of the free world, so it's all really fascinating. I don't think any good Simpsons fan would forgive themselves if they didn't read this book.

I'm really glad that I'm a Simpsons fan now. Through watching the show, I've discovered that their brand of humor is very good natured and satirical, and that Springfield is a smart and accurate reflection of the real world, which is what makes the show so funny. I've also learned that the Simpsons aren't the most rotten, most dysfunctional family ever depicted on T.V. Despite all their differences in personalities and not being able to stand each other in one way or another most of the time, they are a family who loves each other.

Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

Okay, this is the first time in a while that I actually post a review of a book I actually finished reading today! A great improvement, as of late. ^,~

Angels and Demons was an awesome, totally breath-taking read for me! (btw, this isn't the exact cover of the copy was reading, but it looked really cool to me. Fascinating anyway, isn't it? If you tilt your head to read it upside down, the title will look exactly the same way it does right-side up! This kind of trick, known as an "ambigram," actually features a lot in the actual story. I'd never heard of ambigrams before now, so I thought this was really cool!)

This book was written by Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, which I remembered reading and enjoying very much 1 or 2 years ago. (The book is a ton better than seeing the movie, I promise!) Dan actually published this book and meant for the story's events to come before The Da Vinci Code, so I thought it was a little strange that there's a movie of Angels and Demons now instead of earlier. Oh well, I guess Da Vinci Code seemed the better story, and maybe was a bit more controversial.

Okay, so back to this book: I'll admit that the beginning was a tad slow and needed some momentum to get the ball rolling, but besides that, the entire book was honestly a wild rollercoaster ride of mind-boggling mysteries, adrenaline-pumping action, heart-stopping suspense, cliff-hangers you can't resist at the end of every chapter, and characters that keep you guessing their true intentions right to the finish!!!

Even though this was published almost a decade ago, I feel some hesitation in revealing the story, in case there are some people who haven't read the book yet (it's meant for adult readers, after all). But basically the conflict is between religion and science. There's this whole dirty plot where there's an antimatter time-bomb set to blow up the Vatican City (in Rome) in just hours, so it's amazing that the entire huge book takes place in just one night. Meanwhile 4 cardinals are going to get murdered by an old brotherhood called the Illuminati, and about the only person who can save them is a symbologist professor from Harvard named Robert Langdon, who has to interpret the clues and signs so he can find out where they're hidden. Of course, there are people who help him, but it's hard to tell who is on the side of good or bad.

Just trust me, it's a very riveting read. Only I wouldn't advise seeing the movie first. Not that I have, but I've read the description of the plot on Wikipedia, and it seems too different. They even got most of the names all wrong! I might still watch it, but I don't think I'll like it. But in my opinion, the book is the best!

Link to the trailer.

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

This book was highly recommended to me by the "Latiener Gang," who are now holding a contest for it's prequel, "Fire." You can find more info about it on their blog. I figured I'd keep an eye out for this book, since the prequel was getting so hyped up, but I had no idea I'd find it so soon after thinking about it. O_0

Anyway, this story is a great one. The basic setup is that it takes place in some medieval time when people still rode horses for transport and kings laid down the law. It's not exactly a fantasy story, like, there's no elves or dragons or anything like that. But what's special about this world is that there are some people who are blessed with special powers that give them a certain uniqe talent, different from everyone else's. These powers are called Graces, and the people who have them are Gracelings. (Hence the title of this book.)

All Gracelings are easily identified by their eyes, because they're always two different colors. Every Grace is completely unique for each individual, just like everyone's special talent is pretty much unique. There are Graces for baking, or having a green thumb in the garden, for master fighting skills, or superior strength. There's even special mind-reading Graces, although everyone reads different things, depending on the Grace. (Sadly, there's no Grace for flying, or having control over the elements. That's still imposible in this world. =P)

Anyway, most Gracelings are sent to live in their respective kingdom's palace (there are 7 kingdoms in this land) because, hey, royalty's got to have the best people working for them, right? So the main character of our story, a Graceling woman by the name of Katsa (everyone has one name in this old world too), appears to have the Grace of killing. At least, that's what people think it is. Graces are sometimes hard to quantify, if they're not blatantly obvious. But she seems to know how to "bring down" a guy, so her mean uncle, who is one of the kings, uses her for some of his dirty work. (He isn't one of the nicer kings, but he's not necessarily the villain here.) Of course, when you're looking at it from Katsa's point of view, she's not really all that monstrous and scary. She's just a regular person who is just used to being feared by the people.

I don't want to bore you with all the complicated, convoluted plot elements here, but when the story starts getting real momentum, it's mostly a love story between Katsa and a Graceling prince, Po, whose Grace is also not exactly what it seems, though it does allow him to be about the only person who can hold his ground in a fight with the fierce Katsa, so that's saying something.

This book reminded me strongly of certain other stories I've come to love. Example: the powerful Gracelings, as well as the romance, reminded me of the awesome vampires from the Twilight Saga. The name Katsa reminds me of the main girl in the "Hunger Games," Katniss. (Pretty darn similar, huh? But I don't hold it against either author. Both charcters are amazing!) Finally, the ending that resulted in "Graceling" seemed, to me, to have a Jane Eyre type of feel to it. (If you've read Jane Eyre like I have, maybe you'd know what I mean by that.) Ooh, plus there's the character known as Po. Now, please tell me you didn't immediately think of the fat, pudgy panda voiced by Jack Black who couldn't do any Kung-Fu? Well you don't have to worry, because this Po is nothing like that.

This book was an absolute pleasure to read, and I can't wait to read more by the author. ^_^

Farworld: Water Keep, by J. Scott Savage.

Sorry it's taken me so long to post about this book. So many other things in the Blogosphere have been distracting me. The Authorpalooza... certain contests... other stuff...

I think I'll make this short and sweet. This series, Farworld, seems to show some promise here. I'm not sure I liked the beginning all that much, (especially the first chapter. What the heck is an ishkabiddle???) but by the end of the book I was curious about what would happen next.

The story is that a kid in a wheelchair, named Marcus, has this pretend world that he goes to in his imagination, Farworld. The animals talk and make corny jokes, magic runs rampant, and he's friends with a pretty girl there. In fact, it's a little weird, because Marcus can actually do certain magic tricks, like disappearing and knowing when certain bullies are about to attack him.

But soon Marcus is sucked into Farworld, for real. His imaginary friend, Kyja, is the only girl who cannot perform magic, and Farworld is in danger. (What kind of story would there be if the world wasn't in danger?) To save Earth and Farworld, the two kids have to go to the Elementals of Water Keep, Land Keep, Air Keep and Fire Keep for help, which is supposed to be a near impossible task because the Elementals want nothing to do with one another. In their first adventure (obviously), their mission is to find Water Keep.

I think my favorite parts were whenever Marcus and Kyja "world-jumped" to Earth. Kyja's reactions to Earth things, like cars and fast food and basketball, are pretty comical.

Despite there being 4 Keeps the kids need to go to for help, I've heard that there will be 5 books in the Farworld series. The last one will be Shadow Keep. I wonder what that's about...

The Hunt for Dark Infinity, by James Dashner

At last, today I am done with this awesome sequel to Dashner's 13th Reality series! It's taken me a long time to read it (in fact, I believe I started it back when Annette and I were still in Boston), but I'm finally finished with the thing. Boy oh boy, I'd say that James outdid himself with this one! I mean, yeah, it's darker and scarier and the stakes are higher than in Curious Letters, but that just makes reading it even better!!!

I don't want to reveal too much, in case there are still people who haven't read it yet (it's only been out for a few months, after all), but this was really, really an incredible book. Tick and his friends, Paul and Sofia, go off on more riddle-solving adventures and visit different realities, Master George still tries to figure out what it is about Tick that makes him so special, and you even get to see a strange side of Mistress Jane. And I do mean strange. As in Proffesor Snape strange. I have no idea what to think about her anymore...

From beginning to end, this book was a page-turner. Especially the last 12 chapters that I read in my final sitting. The climax is just amazing. James was totally right about Tick needing a lot of therapy at the end of this adventure, though. ^_~ Also, the ending leaves tons of screaming questions in your head, even when you're finished, but I think it was worth it. I will look forward very much to Book 3, which is rumored to come out next April. A long time to wait, but that doesn't matter much to me. Not to a true Dashner fan, like myself.

Speaking of James Dashner, I am still waiting patiently for my ARC of Maze Runner to come in the mail. Don't worry, it should come in any day now. Well, that's what I keep telling myself, anyway. I hope nothing happened to it. It's been more than a week since I won that contest. Still, you can bet that as soon as I get that book in my hands, I'll be jumping up and down like an excited cartoon character, like the Animaniacs or something. Maybe I won't be able to bounce off walls or anything like that, but I'll probably be that happy! ^_^

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also I thought I might as well mention that recently I've been reading something really cool online. It's especially cool for those who loved Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, like I did. See, Stephenie Meyer started writing a book that was from Edward's point of view, when he first meets Bella, and Meyer called it Midnight Sun. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the first 12 chapters somehow got leaked out to the public online, so Stephenie decided to postpone the project indefinitely and allow her fans to enjoy what little there was of Midnight Sun.

How did I get wind of this awesome thing, you ask? Well, I give full credit to Lauryn, of The Lateiner Gang Book Review Spot, who wrote her review of Twilight and left the link of Midnight Sun for me to follow. So far I've read almost 2 of the 12 chapters, and it's goooood. Trust me. ^,~ It puts a whole new spin on things from Edward's point of view.

Speaking of the L.G.B.R.S. (sorry, but you guys ought to get a much shorter name :P), they're setting up a couple giveaway contests, kind of like what James Dashner did for Maze Runner. One of the prizes offered is a signed copy of Alvor, a book written by my recent friend, Laura Bingham. (Do you remember her? Maybe not, I mentioned her in my regular blog.) Anyway, I know I ought to be content with winning Maze Runner, but how can I possibly pass up the chance to win another free new book? Especially if it has Laura's autograph?! So here, visit these guys' blog for your chance to enter, and be sure to comment that I sent you there. Follow them too if you feel like it. They've written pretty good reviews so far. Granted, they're for books I've already read (or am about to read), but still.

So you guys will probably be pleased to know that my next post (where I'll surely announce my possession of Maze Runner. ^,^ Eeeeee, so excited!) will mark my 60th post on this blog. I think that's pretty darn cool. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that I've reviewed exactly 60 books here. In fact, I think 10 of my posts aren't even reviews at all, just month tally-ups and book-related news and such. But still, at least I think it's an impressive thing.

I appreciate any and all supportful comments. After all, this is a book club, isn't it?

Fly by Night, by Frances Hardinge

I forget now whether I started on the 18th, right after Erec Rex 2, or the 19th. Either way, this book took me a while to read, because it's now the 22nd. I don't usually take 4 or 5 days on a book. Anyway, it was published in 2005, had 485 pages (pretty hefty) and the chapters were pretty interesting. There's a prologue, and then the chapters are marked with letters of the alphabet. "A is for Arson," "B is for Blackmail," etc. It goes all the way to "V is for Verdict," for some reason. I don't know why it stopped at V. Why not Z? I guess X and Z might've been tough to think up words for. So that makes...*counts alphabet on fingers (just kidding!)* 22 letters, plus prologue, makes 23 chapters.

So the story was okay. It takes place in a fictitious land that sounds a lot like 18th century England or something. There are poor villages and bustling cities, fancy talkers, highway men (old-fashioned robbers), wigs, horses and carriages, poor literacy except for scholars and others, basically the works. The book follows a 12 year old girl Mosca Mye (funny name. Everyone is named a bit weirdly) whose father (now dead) taught her to read and she escapes her home village to follow a man named Eponymous Clent, a man who has such a way with words. For some reason she brings with her a goose named Saracen, who is quite fierce. I guess he was handy for scaring the right people off. The book is so long that it was a little hard to keep up with the whole plot. There are these guild wars, rumors of an illegal printing press, the Duke is a bit mad, there's a murder, and all the people worship these numerous gods, which I find confusing, but it seems the multi-god worshipping is normal for Mosca. Everyone does it.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'd say I liked it very much, but I don't think it was that bad. I liked the language people used in that kind of time. It's as if the author went in a time machine and wrote the dialogue as the people then would say it. The whole book was written like one of those classics, I think, but not in the boring way. Plus, I liked how the ending went. Like, Mosca at first is offered a chance at living normally and in safety, but she wants to continue following Clent, no matter where they end up. She says something along the lines of, "Books aren't enough anymore. I don't want a happy ending, I want more story." That's a pretty good ending line, I think. It's not exactly the very last line, but it's close to there. I don't know who else would be interested in this book, but it would be good if you gave it a try.